oneguyrambling The director of this film is Takeshi Kitano, the star is Beat Takeshi... or vice-versa. But they are both the same guy, he acts under one name and directs under the other for some reason. I could care less what he calls himself, Brother rocks.The plot concerns a loyal Yakuza henchman named Aniki who is forced to leave Japan when his Boss is killed and he refuses to kowtow and join a rival gang. He is sent to America where he looks up his younger brother who has gone off the rails a little bit. Not joined-the-Yakuza path, but dabbling in minor drug dealing and stuff.Aniki (means Big Brother in Japanese) promptly takes over the rabble and forms his own gang of 5. Not content with running his own small time show he promptly sets about an expansion program that would leave his shareholders giddy (if they existed). Only like the dot-com boom and bust Aniki operates in a field with many competitors and precious few behavioral boundaries, so this was never going to end happily.What sets Brother apart from the usual drug wars' films is that it isn't made like one. There are long dialogue-free scenes that are allowed to roll out and develop at their own pace, only to be punctuated by sudden acts of great violence, and not the "guy leaps into air after explosion" violence, I mean "guy gets chopsticks forcefully pushed into skull" stuff, or "man picks up broken bottle and sticks it in other man's eye".Aniki himself speaks no English upon arriving in the US, so his instructions are passed down through his little brother and eventually his 2IC Kato that followed him across from Japan and shows unwavering loyalty at all times. Aniki grabs himself a girlfriend, although it is never shown if she is actually his platonic missus or a trinket (or even a pet) that he likes around, and his best friend in the gang is Denny (Omar Epps), a young thug and the unfortunate recipient of the broken bottle mentioned above. The two bond over gambling on anything and everything, despite not speaking each other's language, and it seems that Aniki wants to take Denny under his wing from almost Day 1.As the "business" expands it takes over new turf and incites anger from new enemies and rivals. Everything is run with the Yakuza code of honour and disloyalty and betrayal are both met with savage repercussions. Unfortunately if there is one thing that the Star Wars prequels showed us (aside from not knowing when to stop) it is that "there is always a bigger fish". Ultimately the gang grows too big and a mad scramble is made to flee as the tone changes.It is hard to discuss Brother without making it sound like a whiz-bang action film, it isn't that though. It has action elements sure, but maybe 4 brief scenes in the movie, a far cry from your Lethal Weapons and co... Brother is more a deliberately paced drama that tells a familiar story, but in a different way and with an unfamiliar backdrop.For some reason I found it compelling at all times, even in the slow(er) spots when it seemed to pause for no reason, and I wanted it to continue on and on. I've seen Brother maybe 5 times now, and each time I pick up the DVD cover I know how great this film is, but I press play and let the following 2 hours prove it to me again.As bat-sh*t crazy as some aspects of Japanese culture seem to Westerners these days, there is a lot to admire about the way they conduct their business at times, even in a violent crime film (and I am no Scarface / New Jack City slack-jawed admirer of all things criminal).Final Rating - 8.5 / 10. A pretty straightforward plot: Guy starts business. Business grows. Business hits trouble. But told in a very effective way.

kasumi_kimoto I have seen a lot of Yakuza movies, and heard a lot of positive things about Kitano and this movie, but when I watched this movie I was very surprised. The movie is mainly set in America, a great idea I thought at first, but when I saw the American actors that they had casted I wanted to turn the screen off immediately, because it's very difficult to take characters who keep saying 'yo yo dude, what's up?' seriously. However if you don't mind such speech it might be less frustrating to watch this movie. The second thing that I didn't like about this movie was the violence, when someone was shot death I always frowned and thought: 'what this necessary?'. in the violent scenes you often saw everything explicitly but it was never disgusting or shocking, which is odd for a yakuza movie. so all in all I don't recommend this movie at all, there are far better Yakuza movies out there for the fans.

kmevy Many people treat this film as a total disaster; as an totally abortive experiment. But in my opinion this movie set a new standard for movies, which are trying to combine the very diverse film styles from Japan and the US; a real success, with small glitches; that i have to agree with ;)But nonetheless i was stunt how well this collaboration worked out. (yeah, i know; many people won't agree with me here) Especially if you compare this film, which was again a showcase for Kitano's brilliant talent, to other attempts of Japanese filmmakers to include American culture in Japanese films. The results are often hilariously bad. They are either very racist or pretty tacky.Now in this film the American actors are shining. They are believable living personalities. And the reason lies within the special Kitano film-making-technique, which totally differs from the well known Hollywood and Japanese "Dorama" construction kit-alike filmaking. And the other very important thing is, that the American part is neither colliding with the Japanese style nor is it being manipulated by the Japanese part. I was also amazed by the special way the American cast acted. It felt sometimes way more natural than in all these cliché Hollywood productions. A simply fascinating symbiosis of those two film-styles. Kitano stated that he doesn't plan to do another film like this one; well, that's OK with me. This makes "Brother" as an experiment and as a movie more unique anyway. ;)Well this is one of many reasons, why this film has to be considered a masterpiece. So there is far more to praise: The beautiful and dramatic music by Joe Hisaishi, the very fitting/stylish costume design, the incessant stunning photography and the very censoriously storyline, which shows that building your own cartel might confront you with some bloodshed ... ;)well, that's it! (should write more reviews in the future .. It's pretty fun! ;) So if you are considering yourself a Kitano-fan: watch it and you will probably be pretty amazed ;) If you are a first-timer to Kitano .. be careful. If you don't like this one you probably won't like all the others ... except the less violent ones like Dolls or "A scene at the sea" for instance; those are also fascinating pieces of art and shouldn't be ignored!

johnny-08 Another interesting movie from well known Japanese director Takeshi Kitano.Kitano established himself as an excellent director and in this one he acts good too.His face has no emotions in portraying this character.He had help from some American actors,especially Omar Epps.Probably you wonder what connection could possibly have Kitano and Epps but there are few scenes in witch they work perfectly.Movie has lots of blood,lots of dead people but it also shows us the way of living.The underground scene of Japan and America.Gangs,drugs,weapons,yakuza,Japanese and Americans.The only man who can connect this is Kitano and his excellent writing.This is definitely not the best Kitano movie but it's worth watching.Because of very good script.Because of very good acting.And finally because of Takeshi Kitano's talent.